1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a nano bubble generator for irrigating a root canal of a tooth and a dental device including the nano bubble generator, and more particularly, to a nano bubble generator for irrigating a root canal of a tooth that may spray nano-scale bubbles and a dental device including the nano bubble generator.
This work was supported by the Technological Innovation R&D Program (S2163003, Nanobubble Irrigation System) funded by Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA, KOREA).
2. Description of the Related Art
A nerve treatment refers to a method that, when the dental pulp is infected due to bacteria of a cavity or becomes inflamed due to noxious stimulus, may completely remove and clean the infected tissues and dental pulp within a root canal of a tooth and then may fill a predetermined filling material in the corresponding space, thereby preventing bacteria from intruding into the root canal and helping the tooth becomes autonomously treated to be healthy.
In the recent times, such dental nerve treatment technology has been construed being very important and completely removing foreign substances from within the root canal is required for a success in the treatment. In particular, the inside of the root canal is small as a micro unit and contacts with the tissue cells of the gum. Accordingly, it may be significantly difficult to remove foreign substances from within the root canal.
A variety of methods for irrigating foreign substances present within the root canal may be employed, and may include, for example, a syringe-needle irrigation method, a manual dynamic irrigation method, a brush method, a sonic irrigation method, an ultrasonic irrigation method, and a laser-activity irrigation method. In this instance, the ultrasonic irrigation method is most preferred as the latest technology capable of irrigating even the inside of the micro root canal.
The ultrasonic irrigation method is designed to enhance the irrigation effect by injecting a sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) irrigation solution into the root canal through a very thin bendable needle and by generating the acoustic streaming and bubbles using ultrasonic waves.
However, a size of a bubble generated in a currently widely used instrument is about 100 micrometers to 1 millimeter, which can be construed being significantly large and thus, the irrigation effect may be degraded.
According to Young-Laplace equation, the pressure within a bubble is in an inverse proportion to a size of the bubble. Thus, the smaller the bubble, the larger the explosion pressure of the bubble and thus, micro foreign substances attached to the wall may be easily removed. Accordingly, technology for generating nano-scale bubbles of 1 micrometer or less is required to completely remove foreign substances.
Meanwhile, a device for generating micro or nano-scale bubbles has been developed so far, and a bubble generator using a decompression or a turbulent vortex has been widely employed.
Bubble generation technology using a decompression device refers to generating bubbles during a process of decompressing a super-saturated liquid at a high pressure of 304 kPa to 405 kPa. Bubble generation technology using a turbulent vortex refers to generating bubbles by dropping the pressure within a fluid to be less than or equal to a saturated vapor pressure through the fast spinning vortex flow.
However, the existing technologies are generally employed to generate a large amount of bubbles and to increase dissolved oxygen in, for example, a sewage treatment plant or a water tank. Thus, a corresponding device is relatively large and thus, may not be directly applied to a medical device for the dentist.
Also, a dental scaler is a dental instrument used to remove the tartar attached to the surface of teeth and may include, for example, a passive metal scaler and an ultrasonic scaler.
Here, the ultrasonic scaler may remove foreign substances, for example, the tartar attached to the teeth and around the teeth by spraying a fluid, such as the water or the air, and by generating ultrasonic vibrations at a scaler tip.